1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in a stroller or baby carriage for transporting or carrying a baby. It particularly relates to a mechanism for stopping a caster having a wheel elastically and rotatably mounted.
2. Background of the Invention
Taking a baby or an infant out in the open air for a walk or for sun-bathing is necessary for the baby or infant to grow up healthy. It is, however, very uncomfortable for a guardian of the baby or infant to hold or carry the baby or infant in the arms or on the back for a long time. On the other hand, it is never desirable for the health of a growing baby or infant to be kept in a rigid posture for a long time.
To eliminate those inconveniences, baby carriages have been developed and a number of excellent improvements have so far been developed in those baby carriages.
Some baby carriages, as represented by bassinets, were intended as their initial main object to carry babies laid on their sides in the baby carriages. These have subsequently been so developed that babies can be carried as if they are sitting on chairs.
Through those improvements, the baby carriages have been so designed as to be portable to thereby make it possible to carry the baby carriages into public traffic means such as subway cars. The baby carriages which had been used merely in the immediate neighborhood of households have thus been made available also for an outing over a long distance.
In such baby carriages, wheels are the only constituent member for ground contact. Accordingly, a comfortable ride is greatly influenced by construction of a mechanism for mounting the wheels. For this reason, improvements in structure for mounting wheels in the baby carriages have also evoked great public attention.
Various improvements with respect to a mechanism for supporting wheels have been already developed as follows:
(1) An improvement in that a caster for supporting a wheel has an elastically supporting mechanism;
(2) An improvement in that a caster is mounted rotatably relative to a leg bar;
(3) An improvement in that a caster mounted rotatably relative to a leg bar can be stopped from rotating as occasion demands; and so on.
Amount those known mechanisms, the mechanism for stopping the rotation of a caster, that is, the stopper mechanism, which is a subject of the present invention, has disadvantageous in the following points because a stopper is pivotally mounted so as to be able to be raised and lowered with respect to a caster body.
(1) At least three parts, that is, a caster body, a stopper and a pivot are necessary for constructing a stopper mechanism separately from one another. Additionally a troublesome process of attaching the stopper through the pivot to the caster body is required, resulting in an increase in the number of manufacturing steps as well as in assembling cost.
(2) A hole for inserting the pivot for attaching the stopper is exposed at the outside of the caster body, so that not only is the attractiveness in appearance reduced, but the function for the vertical swinging movement of the stopper may be degraded because foreign matter, such as dust, water and the like, may penetrate into and accumulate within the hole.